NT Education Workpack Best Mates - Royal National Theatre

Introduction 2

Labouring for a Living 3

Keeping up appearances 7

Insight on site 10

Coins, cash and currency 17

Physical prowess 21

Inside out 23

Best Matesby Sarah Daniels

A collaboration between theRNT, The Waterways Trust andBritish Waterways A MillenniumCommission as Lottery Projectthat forms part of the UK-wideMillennium Festival.

See www.nt-online.org forfurther production details

DirectorJohn Burgess

DesignerRuth Paton

Lighting DesignerJames Whiteside

ProducerHelen Prosser

NT Education Royal National TheatreSouth Bank London SE1 9PX

T (020) 7452 3388F (020) 7452 3380E

Workpack written by Peter Rowlands

Coordinator Helen ProsserDavid McFetridge

Design Patrick Eley

NT Education WorkpackBest Mates

[email protected]

national theatre education workpack 2

Best Mates is a play about so many things andraises an endless range of possibilities for follow-up work in the classroom. It is a play of deftintelligence that examines part of the history of ourcanal network, reveals the role of canal women inthe working of the boats, heightens an audiences’awareness of the importance of education andliteracy and cleverly slides between eras of thepast and the present time to underline theresonance of history for the here and now.

What we offer here is a teacher’s pack (and itis a teaching pack rather than range of learningmaterials) that offers planning initiative for cross-curricular or combined approaches to exploringthemes raised by the play. Like the play BestMates, the pack does not concern itself solely withthe history but seeks to make connections withpupils’ present day experiences andunderstanding of the world. There are possibilitieshere to use a wide range of curriculum strands.Importantly the subjects and their NationalCurriculum criteria are consistently noted (inemboldened type and italicised marginreferences). This is designed to help withteacher’s planning of classroom delivery and tohighlight the pertinence of the approach to thedemands of the National Curriculum. At both KS2and KS3, for example, the theme of canal historyhas pertinence for both Victorian and post 1930sBritain.The pack is divided into six sections that roughlydivide as labour (Labouring for a Living), the artand culture of canal life (Keeping upAppearances), the physical environment (Insighton Site), the economic (Coins, Cash andCurrency) and human exertion (Physical Prowess).and the issues of social exclusion (Inside Out).

Introduction


1In the play Best Mates, Jason sets off on ajourney through the past and on the canal boatbelonging to Agnes and her daughter Daisy, theirfirst encounter is with a Christian reformerconcerned about the conditions in which canalfamilies lived.

‘…for the sake of the transportation of coal, flour, textiles andother goods necessary in today’s world that over onehundred thousand canal boat men live with their families, notjust their wives but children often four or five in a cabin rifewith poverty, disease and squalor, no bigger than the averagecoal hole. Their gaudily painted boats might give theimpression of all things being bright and beautiful but inside

it is all gloomy, ungodly, ugliness. …’ (Cedric)

Entire families of parents and four or five childrenoften lived in a boat cabin that was little more than10 feet by seven feet. In the early years of canallife, profits were generous enough to pay boatmena reasonable wage and families lived on the land.However, as the railways took work and incomefrom the canal companies, so pay becameincreasingly poorer. Families could no longersustain a house and so they moved to living on thecanals. Constantly on the move, their lives werevery different from conventional households.Babies were strapped to a harness and toddlersoften had to be tied to the chimney on the cabinroof for safety but as soon as they were ambulant,

they quickly became part of the working life on thecanals and learnt to work the locks, lead the horseand steer the boat. The women worked hard aswife, mother and boat worker. These women’sefforts were not recognised or rewarded by theiremployers until some companies belatedlyacknowledged their labour in the 1920s.

ActivitiesKey Stage 2 & 3: English / History

*Pupils could be prompted to plan, predict andexplore the lives of boat children through animaginative diary of what might be a typical day.They may need to be provoked to think about thelack of social contact and the insularity of suchchildren’s lives given that the boats wereconstantly on the move. This meant littleopportunity to move far from the canal, to explorethe surrounding towns and countryside, to mixwith other children, to go to school. What wouldthe day be like given that it was taken up withconstant work and little shelter on the boat?

*Work for women was heavy and includeddomesticity alongside the business of being themain parent whilst helping with loading cargo,bowhauling a boat into a lock (pulling the vessel inon ropes), shafting off banks and into tightmoorings and working the locks with their heavypaddles and gates. In small groups, pupils mightlike to role-play the journey through a flight oflocks and explore the many facets of trying tomanage boat and family in safety.

*Using a comparative list to explore and evaluateideas beliefs, attitudes and experiences,pupils might brainstorm and consider the quality ofcanal children’s lives compared with the childrenwho lived on the land. It has to be rememberedthat until the 20th century, land children may havebeen equally employed in factories and received

Labouring for a living

Four-year-old Colin Harrisaboard his parents Willow

Wren pair Moorhen & Wagtail.Grand Union Canal, 1961

photo Hugh McKnight


little or no schooling. Which environment is moreappealing? Daisy remarks that her mother is betteroff on the boats than ‘burning her fingers in a jamfactory’. Do pupils think that it was the same for thechildren?

2‘I thought I’d be up for a bit of a lark and spend my daypoddling about on boats seemed just the ticket. Only when Igot here it was anything but. My God, it’s bally hard miserablework, unbearably tiring, freezing cold with bugs and licerunning amok over one’s bod nightly’ (Connie)

Connie’s voice is markedly different from that ofAgnes and the other people who work the boats inthe play. It is not just a reflection of the time (WorldWar II). Young and educated women wererecruited to work the canal boats because menhad been called up. They wore badges bearing theinitials ‘IW’ that earned them the unsuitable andmistaken nickname of ‘idle women’. Much of thisexperience is documented and written about

because this group of women were educated andliterate, unlike the members of traditional boatfamilies.


*To extend their knowledge and understanding ofevents, people and changes in the past,pupils might wish to think about the contrastsfaced by women such as Connie who left theircomfortable and comparatively sheltered lives towork on the canals. Through role-play, pupilscould improvise comparative scenes of life pre-war and then as a worker on the canals. Inwatching the improvisations it might be a goodstrategy to freeze the action at important momentsto underline the pupils’ own discoveries ofdifference and pertinence. If necessary, these keymoments could be repeated as a motif tounderline understanding of the issues. Thisreflective activity could then be extended into thewriting of an imaginary letter to friends or family athome.

*In this instance history is both seen and heardthrough the vehicle of a play. Histories, of course,can be relayed in many ways. Pupils may want toreflect on the way in which they have learnthistories. This is an opportunity to heightenawareness of the way in which the past isrecalled, selected and organised and torecognise that the past is represented andinterpreted in different ways. List all thesuggested routes such as oral traditions,museums, personal collections, museums,reading, films, television, the recollections of familyand friends, building plaques and public notices?Pupils might consider what histories areconsidered ‘important’ in our culture. What are theproblems in finding out about the past of peoplelike Agnes as opposed to the articulate voice andliteracy of Connie?


Mrs Rose Whitlock aboard her Blue Line Canal Carriers

boat Lucy. Grand Union Canal, mid 1960s

photo Hugh McKnight


*Pupils will inevitably have personal anecdotes thatthey are aware of that connect to places or thepast. Encourage story telling through writing ortalking as a prompt to examining a sense of theplace or the past. In particular, the leisure use ofcanal systems may offer an opportunity to reflecton change and to identify differences betweenways of life at different times.

3‘I thought she (Connie) was so stuck up but it’s just her voice.She’s really kind. Mind, did you hear her? She’s only been onthe canals two minutes and she’s going to write a book aboutit. What about my life, my Mum’s life, my Grandmother’s andher Mum’s before her. All our lives sink without trace like peeform the po thrown in the Cut. And my Daisy’s, my little girl’slife packed so full of hard work and adventure and nothing toshow, nothing to remember her just a name and a date in a

book no one ever looks in.’ (Agnes)

Family life on the canal had a relatively brief history(roughly from 1800 to 1960) but because of theintense relationship with the waterways, the boatsand the ports, factories, coal pits and powerstations, the people who worked the canalsquickly developed a deep and powerful cultureand identity. Much of this is still evident in thelegacy of the striking decoration of narrow boatsand the crochet, ropework and embroideredartefacts that remain. There was also a highlydeveloped language. In the play, Agnes refers toonlookers and outsiders as ‘gangoozlers’; thecanal is a ‘cut’ and the towpath a ‘stretch ofpound’. These terms, some self-evident in theirmeaning, others more obscure, clearly helped toinclude and exclude particular groups of people.


*Pupils might be encouraged to reflect on the waythat local dialects and the vocabulary of

identifiable groups act to reinforce identity andcommunity. In the Calder Valley in West Yorkshirenewcomers are still referred to as ‘off-cumdens’.The word has the same resonance as‘gangoozlers’. What words can the pupils list thathave a specific value for particular groups ofpeople? It might be worthwhile to collect singlewords on single cards and then attemptcollectively to organise them into groups byattribution to the past, to age (the voices ofgrandparents or of youth culture?), to interest, toplace. This is an opportunity to highlight changesover time and the origins of words and torecognise social and cultural diversity. Theremay be other categories that you or the pupilsidentify. Some words may not fit neatly into anycategory, others may cross boundaries; do theyalso have variances of meaning according to thepeople who use them?

4‘Before the war we was all aware that our work wasprecarious, there was less and less of it, more and more of uswas having to settle on the land. The war was a sort ofreprieve because the military needed so much of the landtransport but after the war the working lives of canals were allover bar the leisure industry. In many ways living on the bankwas something to look forward to because it was all work,work, work on the water but once we got inside the factoriesit was like prison. It might only have been a nine to five daybut it was dirty, smelly, noisy and even if it was physicallyeasier it was much worse than being your own boss everyday

of the year in the open air.’ (Walter)

ActivitiesKey Stage 2 & 3: English / History / Music

*Research might be prompted by the idea that thecanals had a renewed life during the war. Pupilsmay be directed towards considering what cargowas particularly suitable for canal transportation.This is a moment where pupils may reflect on theresults of the historical events, situationsand the changes in the period. It is interestingto note that in places a number of floating barracks



were converted from moored barges.*There is a sharp contrast between the criticism ofthe quality of life that Cedric, the reformer, offersand this nostalgic commentary spoken by Walter.The difficult and arduous conditions of the boatsseem to have been replaced by closed andoppressive factories. Using music as an approachto capture this distinction, pupils might beencouraged to consider the qualities of sounds onthe canals (including the continual chug of theboat) and the sounds of the factory. There is anopportunity here to reflect on the environment.Pupils should be offered the opportunity in groupsto improvise with percussion and otherinstruments to develop rhythmic and melodicmaterial. Reflecting seemingly ‘natural’ locationsand contrasting ‘mechanical’ environments, pupilsmight strive too offer a judgement within themusical piece about the quality of life in thedifferent places. This is an opportunity topractise, rehearse and perform withawareness of different parts, the roles andcontribution of the different members of thegroup, and the audience and venue.



1‘…for they are cabin’d, crib’d and confined and generallyherded together in a way that is neither comfortable nordecent. A more appalling picture of himan degradation itwould be perhaps difficult to conceive…’ (Cedric)

Early in the play Best Mates we meet Cedric thereformer, who is condemnatory about the crampedconditions on the canal boats. Entire families livedin tiny cabins with no sanitation and a lack ofprivacy or space. However, the evidence suggeststhat most boats were proudly and carefullymaintained. The outside of the vessel was brightlypainted in the tradition of ‘Roses and Castles’. Theorigins of this convention are uncertain althoughsome researchers suggest a parallel withfairground art. However the style clearly borrowedheavily from landscape art prevalent in thenineteenth century and made popular by theadvances in printing. Echoes of the style can beseen in the faces of grandfather clocks of the era.Typically, a central landscape panel showed acountry scene crowned by a castle and includinga sailing boat. The border was of garlands ofroses. The work was effected in bright, boldcolours and continues to be coarsely copied inmodern interpretations on narrow boats andsouvenir wares. The style had strong regionalqualities and it was easy to identify boats fromdifferent boatyards when they were on the canalsor moored for the exchange of cargo. It was astrong way of binding communities of canalpeople. The art form bred specialist painters andmany of them became famous for their skills.

There is a splendid booklet available from theBirmingham Canal Navigation Society or throughBoat Museums called Narrowboat Decoration byJohn M. Hill (£1·00) that offers brief but cleardetail of Rose and Castle work.

ActivitiesKey Stage 2 & 3: Art and Design

*Either by a visit to canal moorings or, if easily

accessible, to a Waterway or boat museum, pupilscould be encouraged to investigate the designson boats and make rough sketches of a centralcastle panel so that the significant features suchas colour, pattern and texture, line and tone,shape, form and space are recognised. This is apalpable opportunity to investigate art, craftand design in the locality and in a specificgenre, style and tradition. KS3 pupils shouldbe encouraged to make notes alongside theirsketches that note the codes and conventionsand how these are used to represent ideas.In particular they be encouraged to consider theway that the landscapes are idealised andromanticised.

*Using stencil techniques based on the panelillustration above, pupils might cut a series ofsimple templates that when overlaid offer anopportunity to layer colour to achieve the rosegarland for the border designs used onnarrowboats. Here pupils can apply theirexperience of materials and processes,including drawing, developing their controlof tools and techniques/experiment withand select methods and approaches,synthesise observations, ideas and designand make images.

*As a final stage to this process, pupils may workfrom the initial sketches to offer their owninterpretation of a Castle design located within aborder built up by the overlaying of the templates.They may want to offer their own regionalinterpretation of the Castle design that uses alocal landscape or building. Perhaps water towersor cooling chimneys become our contemporarycastles or does this stray from the romanticnotions that are embedded in the 19th centurydesigns? This is an opportunity to adapt andrefine their work and plan and develop thisfurther, in the light of their own and others’evaluations.

Keeping Up Appearances


2New Year 1948 saw the nationalisation of thewaterways and a new standard livery was imposedupon working boats. The Castles and Roses weretemporarily effaced from the outsides of boats tobe replaced by a standard colour and logo. Thiscaused hue and outcry, even meriting a cartoon inThe Daily Mail. The resistance to this changeprompted a short-lived habit of decorating theinterior of cabins in the traditional idiom. There wasto be a revival of the Roses and Castles traditionalthough many modern vessels are actuallydecorated with transfers that are easy to replaceand considerably cheaper to apply.


*Pupils might be prompted to think about the wayin which livery promotes a corporate image.Modern shifts from the nationalised status oftransport industries means that the privatised trainand bus companies have adopted a particularlivery to distinguish their services. Pupils mightstudy different livery and discuss the impact ofdesign features. What does the choice of colour,form design, lettering suggest about the statusand style that the company is attempting to

promote. With this analysis in view, pupils mightbe prompted to design a livery for some form oflocal transport that reflects their own sense ofeither the service or the region in which they live.Here is an opportunity to explore the roles andpurposes of designers working in differenttimes and to reflect upon continuity andchange in the purposes and audiences ofdesigners.

*British Airways are currently painting out the tailsof their planes after an experiment in whichcontemporary artists were commissioned tocreate unique designs for individual planes. Theexercise was a considerable investment for thecompany and faltered because the public wereantagonistic to the change and felt that the tail finsdid not offer a suitable national reflection. There isan opportunity here to discuss art and design inthe public space and to explore the idea that artmight be integrated in our lives on functional sites(murals on buildings for example). What site on thenearby canal system might be enhanced byartwork? Pupils might work in a group on a seriesof sketches for this site considering scale,materials, cost and the impact on the environment.The final design, for a more ambitious project,could be transferred to a scaled plan of theimagined site. This project involves collaboratingwith others, on projects in two and threedimensions and on different scales. It alsooffers the possible challenge of investigatingart, craft and design in the locality, in avariety of genres, styles and traditions, andfrom a range of historical, social and culturalcontexts.


Typical petal styles

from Narrowboat Decoration:A Short Guide, John Hill 1983



3Towards the end of the play Best Mates Agnescollects together a Christmas stocking for Daisywho is in a sanatorium with tuberculosis. Thecontents of the stocking are later seen in a flash-forward in time in a display case. Poignantly, Daisydied before receiving the stocking. The contents ofthe stocking reflect the hardship of canal life andthe items are all hand made using traditional canalcraft skills of woodwork, ropework and crochet.To this stocking Jason adds a tiny Dragonfly madeout of thin wire.


*Using modelling wire, pupils could exploremodelling a dragonfly or other insect or animal lifethat they recognise as being residents on thewaterways. Here pupils can explore a range ofstarting points for practical work includingtheir experiences and natural and madeobjects and environments.

4The stocking is exhibited years later in a displaycase at the old sanatorium that has become amunicipal records office. The legend beside itreads A Christmas gift given to a canal girl whoseparents because of pressure of work couldn’t visitas often as they’d like. (Connie) The discovery ofthe stocking highlights Jason’s inability to read (hehas to ask Connie to read the notice; it becomesa symbolic moment in which the boy begins torecognise the importance of literacy; a recognitionthat is later crystallised by Agnes’s plea that helearn to read and write so that he can write theirstory; the story of working canal women.

ActivitiesKey Stage 2: English

*Pupils might like to collect objects in the genre ofthe contents of the stocking and display them inthe classroom as if tumbling from a large sock.Surrounding this disgorged stocking, pupils mightlike to attach cards that carry the meanings thatthey have taken from the play. Some discussionmight help to gel individual thinking and opinion.Sentiments might include a recognition of therelationship of the past with the present, the role ofwomen in society, how history is shaped and told,the importance of education, the qualities of goodfriendship and so on. Pupils will be full ofthoughtful and resourceful ideas! This offers anideal opportunity for group discussion andinteraction with particular emphasis uponexplaining, reporting and evaluating.

national theatre education workpack10

‘…It was choked with mud and slime and smelly as a runnydog’s doings on a hot day…’ (Agnes)

The canal system offers such a fertile opportunityfor investigating the geography and ecology of anarea that it is difficult to do it justice. From theearliest days, the canal system transfigured thelandscape. Inevitably it met with considerableresistance and it is not hard to imagine how thisextraordinary feat of engineering scarred thelandscape with its high cut banks and rigid linesthat time has healed with trees, hedgerows andcolonised plants. It was not just the waterway thataltered the landscape but the contingentdevelopment of warehousing and factories.

One of the cradles of the industrial revolution,the Calder Valley in West Yorkshire changed froma sleepy, remote rural landscape to a fug ofchimneys and intensive terraces to house theworkers in the cotton and fustian mills.Interestingly this area has become, like the canalsystem in many places, a magnet for leisure andtourism and the Rochdale Canal (which joins withthe earliest canal in the country, the Bridgewater inManchester) has been renovated and renewed. Atone point an entirely new lock at Tuel Lane has hadto be built to renew the connection with the Calderand Hebble Navigation. If you stand on ScoutRock (Ted Hughes’ beloved edifice of cliffoverlooking the Calder Valley) you are offered aparadigm of industrial growth below with the river,canal, train line and road running in tandem alongthe floor that up until the 18th century had been aboggy and disregarded tract below the farmedhills. There is evidence to be seen of old millfactories and sentinel chimneys and alongsidethese buildings, often renovated as hotels andapartment blocks, are the vast industrial estatebuildings of modern industry. The canal has beensensitively and strikingly renewed and cared for. Itwas almost lost. The Hebden Bridge Council anda considerable retinue of townsfolk pressured tohave the canal filled in during the 1960s. It is nowa major tourist draw card and a new marina andcanal interpretation centre is planned. Thesehistories and geographical changes are notunique. You will be able to trace just such patternsin your own area.

Nothing quite beats a hands on experience tounderstand the workings and intricacies of thecanal system. To explain the lock systems to pupilsin abstraction is possible but it is so much clearerin concrete reality. The following section offers asurvey form for pupils to use on a visit to the canal.

Key Stage 2

* Collect and record evidence* Analyse evidence and draw conclusions* Use appropriate geographical vocabulary * Describe where places are* Identify how and why places change* Recognise and explain patterns made by

individual physical and human features in theenvironment

* Recognise some physical and human processesand explain how these can cause changes inplaces and environments.

Key Stage 3

* Ask geographical questions and identify issues* Collect, record and present evidence* Appreciate how people’s values and attitudes,

including their own, affect contemporary social,environmental, economic and political issues, andto clarify and develop their own values andattitudes about such issues

* Use an extended geographical vocabulary* Describe and explain the physical and human

features that give rise to the distinctive characterof places

* Explain how and why changes happen in places,and the issues that arise from these changes

Insight on Site


Your name

Class

Date

1What is the name of the canal that you arevisiting?

2 What is the nearest uphill town (the town towardsthe higher levels of the canal from the positionwhere you are now)?

3 What is the nearest downhill town (the towntowards the lower levels of the canal from theposition where you are now)?

4 Are the locks numbered or named or both? Writedown the numbers and names that you comeacross.

5Look on the inside of the lock wall. Can you see ameasuring scale?

What is the high level of the water and what is thelow level of the water?

Write down the number and name of the locks andtheir different maximum or minimum depths.

6Are there a number of locks close together?

Why is this necessary?

How many are there?

Do you know what a close series of locks arecalled?

Insight on Site: Canal Survey #1



The close position of several locks is necessarybecause?

Canals built like this are called?

7. What buildings have you come across alongsidethe canal? Make a list e.g lock-keepers house,factories, warehouses, houses, apartment blocks.

8. How many buildings do you think were built herebecause of the canal?

Describe them briefly. For example can you seedoorways built high into the building so that goodscan be loaded in and out of boats?

9. Are there buildings that have obviously changedtheir use?

From what to what? Write down the changes.

10. What materials are used in the buildings?(stone/brick/wood)

11.How do you think the materials for the buildingswere brought to the site on which they are built?



12. Which locks are against boats coming upstream(the lock is full and has to be emptied before theboat can go in)?

13. Which locks are against boats comingdownstream (the lock is empty and has to be filledbefore the boat can go in)?

14. Is there an aqueduct nearby that takes boats overa road, river or another canal?

15. How close are the nearest road, river and railway?The nearest road is?

The nearest river is?

The nearest railways is?

16. Roughly how far is it to the nearest tunnel (if yourhave not got a map with you, look out for a sign onthe towpath that gives details of the journey of thecanal? The nearest tunnel is?

17. What birds have you seen during the course of theday? Make a list of the ones who live here becauseof the water.

18. What other animal life is evident on the canal?Whydo some animals live in this canal environment?

Which of these animals live here and which arehere only temporarily such as dogs beingexercised or cattle and sheep grazing nearby? They live here because?


19. Most canal companies built reservoirs to keep aconstant supply of water even in the driestweather. The water is often at a distance from thecanal and is fed into the waterway by a series offeeder channels. Do you know where the nearestreservoir is?

Have you come across any feeder channels?

If so draw a sketch map to show how the water isfed into the canal.


20. How many different kinds of boats have you comeacross?

Draw a bird’s eyes view of their shape (a view fromabove).

Do you know what the different boats are calledand what they are used for? Make notesunderneath your drawing.




21. How many working boats have you seen?

How many leisure boats have you seen?

How many houseboats have you seen?

22. What evidence is there that the canal has beenimproved and looked after by people?

What aspects of the canal and towpath need moreattention and care from people?

Who do you think should be responsible forlooking after this environment?



1At the beginning of Best Mates, Jason, a present-day schoolboy and the central character of theplay, tells us about the Crown coins that he hasinherited from his grandmother. These Crowncoins become a recurring motif in the play andJason spends them, during his journey through thepast, to rescue the people he meets from variouspredicaments. Happily, however, his kindness isrepaid and the Crowns are returned to him beforehis arrival back in the present!

‘…They’re called Crowns and they’re really worth a lot…When tomorrow I turn up in a hundred and five quid pair oftrainers then the only person laughing in my class will be

me…’ (Jason)

Such was the shortage of coins during the cuttingof the canals that companies struck their owntokens to pay the navvies. These coins sometimescarried the Coats of Arms of the company orimages of the locality in which the canal was beingbuilt.

ActivitiesKey Stage 2 & 3: Mathematics, English, Art, Design &TechnologyKey Stage 3: Citizenship

*Dramatic improvisation might flesh out insight

into the problems of not being able to spend thetokens in some places and the sense of frustrationor exclusion from ‘land’ life. In contrast pupilscould explore the effects for businesses when thenavvies moved on to another stretch of the cuttingof the canal. Pupils could be encouraged to thinkabout the effects of a ‘local currency’ and theimpact on how money was spent and tradeoccurred. Inevitably tokens would only berecognised and therefore accepted in a limitedarea and by a number of businesses which wouldmean a very particular ‘boom’ for as long as thework on the canal continued.

*Since these tokens would not be endorsedcurrency, there had to be a way to ensure they hadfinancial value. In fact the company would buyback the tokens wherever they were spent. Howdo pupils imagine the system worked? Can theyexplain, report and evaluate contemporaryuses of tokens and the way these are operated?(eg. school dinners, doorstep milk delivery in someplaces, gaming machines). Why are they used inthese places and what security do they offerbecause of their closed circulation and specificvalue?

*The tokens had a local character in their design.They sometimes carried a Coat of Arms or imagesof the region. Pupils could investigate andmake their own tokens. What would they includein a Coat of Arms for a company and what imageswould they borrow from the locality? Consideringthe face designs of modern coinage might help tostimulate pupils’ thinking about the way in whichvalues are carried by design. The displacement ofcurrency through the use of tokens tends to havebeen replaced by ‘plastic’. Credit cards, prepaidmobile telephones, subscription cards to clubsand organisations are a few examples. Exploringand evaluating the increasing use of thesecards might throw up some interesting insightsand encourage pupils to think about the way thatthey are involved in the process of change and themaking of history here and now.

Coins, Cash and Currency

Coventry Canal Token

1768

2A Crown coin buys safety for Agnes and Daisy ontheir boat when Bill, full of hatred for the canalpeople, douses the boat with petrol and threatensto light a match. A Crown coin buys a horse for Lilyand Walter who have had to have their workinghorse put down. Jason attempts to use a Crowncoin to bribe the Inspector who discovers thatAgnes, the boat woman who has befriended him,is under weight with her cargo of grain becauseshe used some to bake some bread to pay backthe kindness of people when her daughter, Daisy,goes into hospital.

A Crown, of course, was worth five shillings.There is other coinage in our history:Pre decimalisation (15 February 1971) – a poundwas worth 20 shillings. There were twelve penniesto a shilling. There were at various moments in thepast, Crowns (5/–), half-Crown coins (2/6), florins(2 shillings), sixpences and threepences(thre’pence), pennies, halfpennies (ha’penny) and

farthings (a quarter of a penny).Further back in our history we had units such asthe Sovereign (roughly a pound in itscontemporary value), a Royal (between 10 to 14shillings), an Angel or a Noble (between 7 to 10shillings).

Interestingly, there was heated debate beforedecimalisation about whether to use ten shillingsor a pound as the basis for the new decimalisedcurrency. Countries such as New Zealand andAustralia had already moved from a sterling unit toa ten-shilling unit that they called a dollar. Britainkept the pound because of tradition and prestigebut, interestingly, had we moved to a ten-shillingunit there was talk of calling it a Royal or a Noble!

ActivitiesKey Stage 2 & 3: Mathematics, English, Art, Design &TechnologyKey Stage 3: Citizenship

*Pupils might want to explain, explore andevaluate why the Crown coins that Jason has willapparently buy a pair of trainers at £105.00 incurrent terms. Why are the coins worth so muchtoday? Why and how do coins accumulate worthbeyond their face value? Pupils may needguidance to consider how this was once partlyrelated to the metal value or gold and/or silver butincreasingly the value is enhanced by history orrarity.

*Although the coins may have a value way beyondthe 5 shillings when they were minted, Jasonseems to feel that £105.00 for a pair of trainerswill be a good exchange. Once upon a time hecould have bought a horse for just one of the coinsat 5 shillings! Pupils could explain, explore andevaluate the products found in magazine andnewspaper advertisements and write up a list ofsingle items of significant cost that they could buywith £105.00. Which of these items would theychose and what is their justification? Do all theitems have the same apparent complexity or worthin their construction? Issues to consider could



Staffordshire & WorcestershireCanal Company token

include the effects of volume of sales in reducingthe unit price or, conversely, the popularity of aproduct making it possible to demand higher profitmargins.

*Using coloured counters with an imagined facevalue for each colour, or coins designed and madeby pupils, and working in groups, pupils shoulduse any of the suitable four numberoperations to exchange and barter with pre-decimal currency. Each group should have anequal fund at the outset but in differentdenominations of coins. Whatever the design ofthe activity, the task should involve an exchange ofcoins (and denominations) using arithmeticalthinking. According to the complexity that you wishto include, increase the range of coins that need tobe considered. At the end of the task the value oftheir ‘stash’ should be the same as when theybegan but be an entirely different range of coins.

*When the 50 pence piece was introduced in theearly 1970s, it caused a national outcry. Peopledid not like the coin. Pupils could be encouragedto evaluate current coins and explain andreport the merits each design has in their eyes.Do they still think 50 pence coin a poor design?Why has it got seven edges? They might beprompted to consider the issues of weight, size

and shape in relation to people of different abilitiesand needs. What does a blind person need to beable to establish when handling coins? What ishelpful to people in carrying a large amount ofsmall change?

3Financing the canals was a complicated processbecause many projects faced severe difficultiesthat had not been foreseen such as the challengesof the terrain. Money was raised through £100shares and this investment was clearly only withinthe reaches of the very wealthy. Given that somecanals soon made considerable profits, somewealthy investors became even richer. The gapbetween the wealthy and the poor (such as thevery people building the canals) became moreexaggerated. In 1797, navvies (‘navigators’)working on the Kennet and Avon Canal were paidbetween 10p and 15p a day in promissory notesthat then had to be cashed at a discount! Menoften had to pay into a fund to cover injuriessustained in the dangerous work. Canals offeredthe possibility of greater loads and less difficultyfor the transport of fragile goods by road. A goodexample of a principal investor who reapedrewards from both transport and investment wasWedgwood whose fragile china was difficult tomove in safety. Ironically, the coming of therailways temporarily enhanced the profits asmaterials were moved by canal. It was also thecase that once the railways were built, interest anduse of the canals fell sharply.

ActivitiesKey Stage 2 & 3: Mathematics, English, ICTKey Stage 3: Citizenship

*In groups, pupils might plan, predict andexplore the differences in attitude towards thecanals for those able to afford to buy shares withexcess capital of at least £100·00 compared withthe people paid between 60 new pence to £1·05a week. The activity could lead to a structure ofcontrasting improvisation and role-play



Canal tokens


discussing the day’s work and gains around ameal. Who is likely to be sitting down to this event,in what conditions and with what kind ofreflections?

*What connections can be made between thecanals and their pivotal role in shaping theindustrial revolution and the changes in ourmodern society wherein the transport of ideas hasbecome as crucial as the transport of goods?Pupils should be guided to think about the impactof ICT on their world. This could partly be achievedusing the Internet itself to obtain informationmatched to purpose by selecting appropriatesources. The information might then be shapedinto a narrative account, word-processed, for ahistory of the future. How would a future Jasonexplore our current world of informationtechnology and what aspects of our lives mighthave changed? Pupils will need to plan, predictand explore such an account.



1‘The girl with… big muscley hands, and chapped knees

from the canal?’ (Nurse)

‘And if I had my choice again and I could go back over thoseyears – I have had a very hard life and a bad one but I woulddo it all again exactly the same as I had it with the horses, theboats, the loading – I have loaded 25 tons of corned beef, Ihave emptied 31 tons of spelter, I have done 25 tons oftimbers – to me work was nothing. I couldn’t care less, I don’teven today. But I like it and I liked my horse and I liked theboat as it was…I mean you look along the boat as it wasgoing and you see that horse just walking along that road andthe hedges and trees and everything going by. No one canask for better than that. What would I like to see now – beforeI leave this world – I would like to see all those horses comeback and the place come back as it was as I knew it.’ (Nell Cartwright 1977 quoted in The Great Days of theCanals by Anthony Burton; publ. David and Charles, 1989)

Canal life was physically arduous and demandedgreat fitness from the people who worked theboats regardless of gender or age. The very younglearnt quickly to become part of the working teamlooking after younger children and working theboats, locks and docks. Women were often backon deck within hours of having delivered babiesand taking more than their full share ofresponsibility for the tasks involved with runningthe boat, journeying the canals and loading andunloading cargo.

ActivitiesKey Stage 2 & 3: Physical Education Key Stage 3: Dance / Drama Activities

*Using the game ‘Captain Coming On Board’x withmodifications to accommodate Canal life offerspossibilities for a physical warm up to a PE orDrama lesson. Label the ends of the gym, studio orhall as bow and stern and the sides as either leftand right or port and starboard. If you want toreally focus the group you might like to use Daisy’ssignposts of bread and cheese. Using these labelsas target directions, the pupils will run from one toother as you instruct. You can always alter thenavigation mid stream and the last to the station orthe pupils who head in the wrong direction may beexcluded from the game. Now add in the followinginstructions for activities on command:

Whoa Buttercup (the canal horse)Freeze and stay frozen until told to unfreeze – anymovement before this instruction puts theparticipant out of the gameDraw the paddlesParticipants mime winding the windlass to raisethe paddles and allow the water into the lock.Leg itOn their backs, the pupils mime walking the canalthrough a tunnel in a crab like movement.Load the cargoParticipants quickly pair off to mime the lifting andthrowing of a sack into the hold of the boat.

You can add any number of commands that youcan think up related to life on the canals. Thewinner(s) of the game are those with theconcentration and energy to stay the course. Thisactivity offers the opportunity to warm up andprepare appropriately for different activities.

*Working towards a choreography of dance bystructuring a limited number of central motifs fromthe physical work on the boats. Work with thepupils on a series of movements that represent

Physical Prowess

Steam Narrow Boat ‘Victoria’, 1900s

from a drawing by Edward Paget Tomlinson


‘bowhauling’ (physically bringing the boat in on arope in areas where there is no access for ahorse), ‘legging it’ (a spider movement of the legswhilst lying on your back to carry an unmotorisedboat through a tunnel without a tow path – thehorses would have been led over the hill),‘windlass on the paddle’ (the job of winding up thetoothed bar that operates the paddles to drainwater in and out of the locks), ‘walking the pound’(the steady task of walking the horse along thetowpath) and, finally, ‘the last’ moment of the day(signified through a decline to the floor in foetalshape). This work recognises the need torespond to a range of stimuli in shaping dancework.

*In groups, pupils will take these movements andwith music or accompaniment of their (or your)choice work towards a complex realisation of adance that offers a realisation of the working dayon the canal. Here pupils will create andperform dances using a range of movementpatterns and use compositional principleswhen composing their dances with a regard forawareness of motif development, awarenessof group relationships and spatialawareness.

‘…The women took to it better than the men did. Any canalman if he’s honest will tell you that the only person capable ofdoing five things at once is a woman. And they’re also muchbetter at adjusting to change. In fact whatever life threw atthem they seemed to be able to pick up and carry on betterthan blokes. In my opinion they can adapt to anything bar one.I never ever met a woman who became accustomed andmanaged to pick herself up and carry on quite the same after

the death of a child.’

Physical Prowess


1‘Some people will tell you that canal folks are quiet, romanticpeople who just travel up and down the canals doing no harmto anyone, keeping themselves to themselves. But the peoplewho tell you that are most likely well meaning but ill-informed,rich people, who do not have to live near them, ever met onenor are ever likely to. Don’t misunderstand me I’ve nothingagainst pikeys. I just don’t want them living round me or myfamily and I certainly don’t see why we should subsidise

them.’ (Bill)

ActivitiesKey Stage 2 & 3: English Key Stage 3: Citizenship

Grouping pupils in fours or fives, the class isbriefed that you (the teacher) will select oneindividual from each group to leave the roomshortly. The class should be told that in theabsence of these group members, the remainingpupils will be given a topic to discuss. Theexcluded individuals on their return will have theproject of identifying the topic of discussion andbecoming fully reintegrated with the group bytaking an active role in the discussion. It isimportant that the individuals chosen for this taskare relatively robust and articulate. When theselected members have been chosen, they shouldbe excluded from the room and the remainingclass members briefed that the additional element

of their discussion should be that they steadfastlyignore the excluded group member when theyreturn. There should be no acknowledgement ofverbal contributions and no physical or eyecontact should be made. Given the topic fordiscussion, the groups should be given a fewmoments to establish the debate. The othersshould then rejoin their groups. At the end of theexercise pupils should be encouraged to articulatetheir feelings both as the excluder and theexcluded and to extend this insight to widersituations. This is an opportunity to use theirimagination to consider other people’sexperiences and to use dramatic techniquesto explore issues and to explore,hypothesise, debate and analyse.

*Invite pupils to consider the moments and placeswhere they have discovered themselves to be‘different’. Good examples include holidays wherelanguage, accent or dialect becomes a matter ofheightened importance. The shaping of thisdiscussion should be in terms of encouragingpupils to understand the world as a complex andhighly differentiated world in which their ownstatus is by no means transparent or ordinary andthat this very diversity is what is interesting. Theextension to this exercise could be that pupils listtheir own identified ‘differences’ and membershipsto different communities of people that havedistinct rules (school, home, sports club, religiousgroup). Choosing one of these memberships, theymay write a brief article that explains to an outsidersome of the interesting or less well-known facetsof belonging to the identified group. This may offerparallels for acknowledging the diversity ofnational, regional, religious and ethnicidentities in the United Kingdom and theneed for mutual respect and understanding.It offers a context for using different ways tohelp the group move forward, includingsummarising the main points, reviewingwhat has been said, clarifying, drawingothers in, reaching agreement, consideringalternatives and anticipating consequences

Inside Out

Go-ahead for asylum hostel enragesvillage: Irate residents predict crime,tension and plummeting house prices.

The hamlet of Over Stowey, nestling inSomerset’s Quantock Hills, would be asuitable place to house 74 asylum seekers,a planning inquiry ruled yesterday…

Residents and parish councillors inthe all-white community of 314 reactedwith shock and disbelief at the news thatthe planning inspectorate had overturnedSedgemoor district council’s refusal to

approve a planned hostel for asylumseekers…

Embittered residents said the decisionwas a ‘disaster’ for the local community,which has already been divided by theproposals…

Rocketing crime, begging, racialtension, and plummeting house pricescould result, said residents…

Keith Perry in The GuardianWednesday August 9, 2000

Go-ahead for asylum hostel enrages village:Irate residents predict crime, tension andplummeting house prices.


or (at KS3) synthesising others ideas.

*In discussion explore (review) and compare(clarify and synthesise) the values and attitudesin the quote offered from Bill’s speech and thereactions to the planned hostel in Over Stoweyreported in The Guardian.

*Pupils could be asked to write a diary account ofsomeone from another country newly settled in aBritish town or country setting. The pupils shouldbe prompted to ‘make strange’ the world that theyknow and take for granted. What is it about ourown lives and the places where we live that givesit its character or flavour. What is it that might bealienating about initial impressions about such aplace? What losses are there in being moved fromwhat is familiar and comfortable? Promptingpupils to share experiences of holidaying ormoving may help with ideas. The emphasis shouldbe upon explaining, reporting and evaluatingand to reflect on the nature and significanceof the subject.

Exploring social exclusion prompts the need forsensitivity and a clear sense of the pupils presentin the classroom and their own status andhistories before investigating the many prejudices,experiences and perceptions we hold of groupsother than ourselves. Even supportive initiatives,that expose our misapprehensions aboutidentifiable sets of people can, for some pupils,feel like yet another facet, be it a different focus,of their exclusion by the mainstream of oursociety.

Inside Out

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